{{Note box| Your MCE remote will work as keyboard input device (usb hid) without any configuration on most modern linux distributions. Using mythfrontend's keybinding setup, you can get most of the buttons working without the need for LIRC.}}

=== Older remote ===

=== Older remote ===

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==== Ubuntu 8.10 ====

==== Ubuntu 8.10 ====

−

Ubuntu 8.10 ("Intrepid Ibex") has out of the box kernel modules for the MCE remotes. All that is required is to install lirc (as noted above), and follow the prompts.

+

Ubuntu 8.10 ("Intrepid Ibex") has out of the box kernel modules for the MCE remotes. All that is required is to install lirc (as noted above), and follow the prompts. An alternative to LIRC is ir-keytable, which once installed with an already recognized MCE reciever and remote should work out of the box.

==== Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 ====

==== Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 ====

Revision as of 03:07, 21 November 2012

Media Center Edition (MCE) remotes are designed to control PCs running Microsoft Windows with Windows Media Center. MCE remotes come with an external infrared receiver that connects to a PC via USB. Newer PCs may have the IR receiver integrated in the case.

There are two main versions of the MCE remote, typically referred to as the 'older' (Version 1) and 'newer' (Version 2). As of lirc-0.8.1, both versions are supported.

The newer version comes in various alternatives, including different shapes and features. The new model is manufactured by Philips and half a dozen other manufacturers and is available by (among many other ways) purchase on it's own, shipped with MCE 2005 and contained in Hauppauge TV card MCE-Kits.

Support Status

Note: Originally there were two modules lirc_mceusb and lir_mceusb2. These were later merged into a single lirc_mceusb driver. More recently (2.6.35 kernel and lirc-0.8.7) the module was known as just mceusb. You need to adjust all the configuration examples below depending on exactly how the module is named.

MCE Remote

IR transmit and receive are supported on all generations of mce transceivers, as of lirc-0.8.6.

Some newer devices may require post lirc-0.8.6 cvs for full functionality

Historically, there were separate 1st-gen and 2nd-gen drivers, lirc_mceusb and lirc_mceusb2. They were merged into a single lirc_mceusb driver as of lirc-0.8.6, which as noted above, supports transmit and receive on all devices.

MCE Remote alternative

Installation guides

Note: Your MCE remote will work as keyboard input device (usb hid) without any configuration on most modern linux distributions. Using mythfrontend's keybinding setup, you can get most of the buttons working without the need for LIRC.

Older remote

I would think it's the same as the newer remote instructions below, but I can't verify. Only difference is the module name - it will be lirc_mceusb instead of lirc_mceusb2.

Newer remote

You must be using a 2.6 kernel for the newer remote. The kernel module that lirc creates does not have 2.4 support.

Be sure your kernel has support for USB. Most default kernels will. You will only need the USB 1.1 driver (OHCI or UHCI) and USB 2.0 (EHCI) is not required. There is no kernel module specific for this device. Before continuing, be sure your device is recognized by your USB host controller:

This remote requires an updated lirc_mceusb2 driver (newer than current lirc-0.8.2 released: 9-Jun-2007) Download just the updated driver (version 1.30 of the file and newer has support) from LIRC CVS or follow the instructions below for a complete CVS checkout.

Use the default mceusb2 lircd.conf file and all of the remote's keys work without modifying the example mceusb2 lircd.conf file.

Download a lirc CVS SnapShot

Generally the latest cvn snapshot from the official LIRC website should work fine. As of writing, the latest snapshot available is lirc-0.8.7pre1. Download and extract it either manually from the previous link or using the following code.

Users of the very latest linux kernels may find they have problems compiling or running code from the svn snapshot. If you have problems with the above install, or just want to run the latest and greatest lirc version, download the latest cvs lirc code using the following method. If that still doesn't work, please report your issues to the lirc mailing list.

Downloading using CVS

1. Make sure you have the cvs, autoconf, automake and libtool packages installed (rpm package manager users search for them and install their rpms).
2. Type the following on a command line and ignore what it says about not finding /root/...:

5. Continue with the following Install section, starting with "./setup.sh".

Install

You now have two choices, you can either run the Lirc Setup script and accept it installing itself where it wants to, or you can carry out a manual configure. Using the setup script is easier, but it means that the various binararies and configuration files aren't placed in the normal Gentoo locations.

instead of -with-driver=all. You should change mceusb2 to mceusb if you are using the old version of the remote.

If you get an error message that the "kernel source is required", it actually means the kernel headers. On my system this Ubuntu package was linux-kernel-headers-2.9.12-9-386 to match the version returned by the uname -a command. Installing the right version of the headers to match your kernel version is esssential. You may also need to install the gcc compiler.

Load the module

# modprobe lirc_mceusb2

Start lircd

# lircd

Test it with the irw utility. irw will output the commands received by the IR receiver that match your lircd.conf file. So start irw, point your remote and start pressing buttons.

If everything works, then autoload lirc_mceusb2 when your computer loads (how to depends on your distro) and start lircd as well (also depends on your distro).

One note, I'm running a late-model Gentoo and I have to load lircd with this option:

# lircd -d /dev/lirc/0

Otherwise it fails, as it defaults to /dev/lircd.

You will also need to install an lircrc file (note no dot at the front of the filename in the ~/.mythtv directory so that when the frontend starts up it can see the mythtv configuration settings for your remote control buttons.

Linux Distribution Specific Instructions

openSUSE

openSUSE 10.x does not required the steps described above, just install the lirc and lirc-kmp-<your kernel type> rpms (to find kernel type, type "rpm -qf /boot/vmlinuz" at a command prompt). You still need to do the following though.

On openSUSE you can start the lirc daemon at boot by using the run level editor (YaST > System > System Services) and enabling lirc. After this you need to edit /etc/sysconfig/lirc to load the lirc_mceusb2 module at boot. Look for the following lines and make any additions as needed (ie. they should look like this when you're finished):

LIRCD_DRIVER=""

LIRCD_DEVICE="/dev/lirc"

LIRC_MODULE="lirc_mceusb2"

You can leave the rest as it is.

Ubuntu 6.10 Edgy, 7.04 Feisty, 7.10 Gutsy

Ubuntu ships with basic lirc support but does not make it easy to install the kernel modules. These need to be installed as source and compiled. The compilation however, requires the full kernel sources and can have problems with version number conflicts.
The easiest way to get this remote working on Ubuntu is to download the latest source from [1] and compile the lirc_mceusb or lirc_mceusb2 module as appropriate, following the instructions above. Then run

#sudo apt-get install lirc

Which will install the main lirc daemon and configure it to start on boot. The last step is to edit the /etc/lircd/hardware.conf file, setting the MODULE to either lirc_mceusb or lirc_mceusb2 as appropriate and the DEVICE section to /dev/lirc0 Lirc can then be restarted using

#sudo /etc/init.d/lirc restart

Ubuntu 8.10

Ubuntu 8.10 ("Intrepid Ibex") has out of the box kernel modules for the MCE remotes. All that is required is to install lirc (as noted above), and follow the prompts. An alternative to LIRC is ir-keytable, which once installed with an already recognized MCE reciever and remote should work out of the box.

Debian GNU/Linux 4.0

You need to install the lirc packages using apt:

# apt-get install lirc lirc-modules-source

The package lirc-modules-source allows you to build the required modules.
However, just building the modules will leave you _without_ the modules
lirc-mceusb andlirc-mceusb2, so you have to reconfigure the package:

# dpkg-reconfigure lirc-modules-source

Trying to compile lirc-modules-source 0.8.0-9.3 does not work with kernels newer than 2.6.19. See Debian bug #400494. Fix is to apply the patch that Eric Cooper posted to the bug report. To apply patch use "patch -p2 < lirc-patch" from within the lirc-0.8.0 directory.

The mceusb2 module also fails to compile due to an error in that code. To fix it, find all instances of SLAB_ATOMIC in /usr/src/modules/lirc/drivers/lirc_mceusb2/lirc_mceusb2.c and change them to GFP_ATOMIC. (more info)

This will present a screen where you can select the desired modules. You
need at least lirc-dev and either lirc-mceusb or lirc-mceusb2 to get things
working. If unsure, select both lirc-mceusb and lirc-mceusb2. Now you can
build the modules for lirc (using the command `make-kpkg modules-image` with
some additional options, depending on the kernel in use), and afterwards
install the generated package from /usr/src, on my system this was:

# dpkg -i lirc-modules-2.6.17.13_0.8.0-9+MediaCenter+1.2_i386.deb

After this step, You have all the components needed on your system.

To auto-load the modules on system boot, just add them to your /etc/modules
file.

Gentoo (2.6.10)

For my Gentoo (2.6.10) installation I had to do a few extra things.
Before following any install documentation, remove all lirc_mceusb.ko and lirc_dev.ko modules. Mine were in /lib/modules/2.6.10/misc/ . I also had to remove /lib/dev-state/lirc* because devfs was apparently trying to restore some older (non working) lirc states.

Now follow the instructions in the INSTALL to verify proper installation (it may be helpful to load the module with "modprobe -v lirc_mceusb" to ensure you are loading the proper modules from the proper places).

I will add more to this as I understand it better, but for right now I finally have this working. Any help on Wiki Formatting would also be appreciated.

KnoppMyth

R5B7

With a clean install from R5B7 I had to edit one file to get my remote working:
/etc/init.d/lirc

Fedora

There are lirc userspace packages in the main Fedora package repository, and lirc kernel drivers are patched into the Fedora kernels.

1a) Simply yum install the userspace bits:

# yum install lirc

1b) Optionally, to get a library of ready-to-go remote config files:

# yum install lirc-remotes

2) Copy an appropriate remote config file to /etc/lirc/lircd.conf.

3) Start the service and set it to run on system startup:

# /sbin/service lircd start
# /sbin/chkconfig lircd on

Configuring the Buttons

Programmable Buttons

Some MCE Remote Controls are able to learn codes from other remote controls. This was designed to allow you to turn on and off your television and control the TV volume. Only the following MCE buttons are able to be programmed:

TV Power

Volume +

Volume -

To program these buttons, do the following steps for each button in a dark area:

Hold the "DVD MENU" and "OK" buttons at the same time for 2 seconds until the backlight turns off.

Press the MCE button that you want to program. The backlight will blink once to confirm.

Point the original TV remote control at the top of the MCE remote and press and hold the button that you want teach. The MCE remote backlight will blink twice to confirm. If the learning phase fails the MCE remote will blink 4 times (error).

Restore the Default Programmable Buttons Settings

The following steps set the TV Power and Volume +/- buttons back to their default commands:

Press and hold the DVD MENU button and LEFT navigation button at the same time until the MCE Remote Control lights turn off.

Press the OK button.

The MCE remote control lights will blink twice to confirm that the buttons have been reset. The TV and Volume +/- buttons will have the default commands assigned. If the default settings were not restored the lights blink quickly four times (error).

Suggested changes to Button Functions

S3 / Suspend To RAM

This section will allow you to press the "PC" button on your MCE Remote and suspend to RAM in about one second. All fans are off, power is only minimally keeping your RAM refreshed, and your PC is silent. You can then press the "PC" button again to return to the same place in MythTV in about one second. Beats shutting down and booting up to save power. I am a Gentoo user, so only use this as an example. Since kernel 2.6.23, you need to enable deprecated /proc/acpi systems. Also, if using recent nVidia proprietary drivers, you can remove it from hibernate's blacklisted modules.
Be sure irexec is running, you can add this in your .xinitrc:

on reboot the port will be powered when in S3, and the PC will wake from the remote.

Alternatively you can set up a udev rule to automagically populate /sys on insert of the IR receiver (as well as /proc/acpi/wakeup - be sure to use the correct USBx for your system)
Create a new rule /etc/udev/rules.d/90-mcewakeup.rules (ensure that the USB ID matches your receiver)

Troubleshooting

Arrow Buttons Repeat

When navigating the menus in Mythtv, it may appear that each time you hit the up or down arrow, that the button his hit twice but if you are using irw, the button only appears to be pressed once. This is likely caused by another kernel module that is attempting to treat the mce remote as a keyboard. As a test try unloading a few modules

If that solves the problem, you'll need to add the following line to /etc/rc.local on startup. (You can't blacklist the modules because the are force loaded by ir_raw.c)

echo lirc > /sys/class/rc/rc0/protocols

Remote fails to send data

The MCE remotes firmware can sometimes get into an inconsistent state and needs to be reset.

In some models, there might be a large capacitor in the unit because you have to remove the batteries for 1/2 hour or more to discharge it, or try pressing lots of buttons to discharge it quicker. This should reset the firmware.

Transmitter (Blaster) LEDs flash with irsend but device does not respond

The small (1/4in) Microsoft MCE transmitter LEDs have a very short range (<2cm) since they are designed to be attached directly over the IR receiver window. If you cannot get it close enough, it probably will not work. I replaced the original MS MCE transmitter LEDs with the PVR500's (slightly bigger 1/2in length) transmitter LEDs and I was able to control the IR receiver device.
They are both equivalent devices and uses lirc_mceusb2.

It's also possible that there is infrared light interference. Certain LCD displays are known to interfere with infrared remotes. Try turning off possible interference sources, shielding the receiver (sometimes putting the receiver inside an open cabinet, behind a semi-transparent door, or putting a thin paper towel over the receiver helps).

Sluggish / Stuttery Remote

The below solution is no longer necessary since it has been fixed in lirc-0.8.1.

Those using the mceusb2 module (for the newer MCE remote) may want to implement Maciek Klimkowski's patch to make the remote feel a little more responsive and detect repeat keys properly. The patch edits the lirc_mceusb2.c file in the downloaded lirc code (/lirc-0.8.0/drivers/lirc_mceusb2/lirc_mceusb2.c) to remove lines 354 to 357 and insert send_packet_to_lirc(ir); just after the resulting line 380.

To install the patch, change directories to the directory that lirc unzipped to. For example, /usr/src/lirc-0.8.0, download the patch to this directory, then

patch -b -l -p1 <lirc-0.8.0.pre4-mceusb2_key_stutter_fix.patch

You can then go ahead and configure / make / install lirc as normal.

Tip: Even with lirc-0.8.1 you may still get key stutter. A possible work around is to renice lircd to a very high priority. I.e. 'renice -19 <pid of lircd>'

Remote Key / Button Sensitivity

You may find that pressing a button acts like you have pressed the button multiple times.

You can adjust the sensitivity of the remote by adjusting settings in the lircd.conf file (typically located /etc/lirc/lircd.conf)

Typically adjusting the gap setting in the lircd.conf to around 110000 provides a comfortable repeat rate.